Sunday, August 13, 2023

The Remaking of America

 Victor Davis Hanson; Blade of Perseus (victorhanson.com)

We have reached the Tipping Point for the American Electorate to begin dismantling the unstable facade of progressive government. Comment to this post.

"We are in the midst of one of the most radical revolutions in American history. It is as far-reaching and dangerous as the turbulent years of the 1850s and 1860s or the 1930s. Every aspect of American life and culture is under assault, including the very processes by which we govern ourselves, and the manner in which we live.

The Revolution began under the Obama administration that sought to divide Americans into oppressed and oppressors, and then substitute race for class victimization. It was empowered by the bicoastal wealth accrued from globalization, and honed during the COVID lockdown, quarantine-fed economic downturn, and the George Floyd riots and their aftermath. The Revolution was boosted by fanatic opposition to the presidency of Donald Trump. And the result is an America that is unrecognizable from what it was a mere decade ago.

"Here are 10 upheavals that the Left has successfully wrought.

"Free expression. In large swatches of American society—particularly the corporation, the media, the government, the public schools, and the university—it is suddenly dangerous to speak freely. At a DEI workshop, politely object that “whiteness” does not account for all the challenges of “marginalized peoples,” and you will become either ostracized, reprimanded, or perhaps fired.

"Suggest to a class that man-made climate change and the state remedies for it, are still under debate—and your career and livelihood are endangered. In 2020, state that Covid lockdowns would do more eventual damage than the virus—and your career was through. Express doubt that there are more than two biological sexes, and if an athlete or high school principal you will be shunned or rendered professionally inert.

"The government, in league with social media, censors the news. “Liberal” universities often first require McCarthy-era type “diversity” statements for one to be hired. Commissars review syllabi to spot incorrect or improper speech or insufficient DEI zeal. The Left now seeks to modify the First Amendment, and its empowerment of “hate speech,” defined as most anything impeding the progressive project. The state and the universities properly issue word lists of approved vocabularies.   The old ACLU or Sen. Church Committee would now probably be deemed rightwing. The methodologies of Joseph McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover are the preferred models, once they were rebooted to the right cause.                                  The Weaponization of Justice. Administrations and their efforts to stock the justice department with supporters come and go. But in the last decade the Left has viewed the Department of Justice as a political extension of the party—whose unchecked power must properly be directed to hurt enemies and help friends. Nomili wonder Eric Holder described himself as Obama’s “wingman” and became the first Attorney General to be held in contempt for ignoring a congressional subpoena." . . .Full article here.


The Weaponization of Justice

 Clarice Feldman - American Thinker  "If you read nothing else this week, read Victor Davis Hanson’s article in American Greatness detailing how Obama began “the most radical revolutions” in our history. As legal matters -- the lawfare waged against former President Trump and the Department of Justice’s pussyfooting around the Biden bribery took this week’s center stage, it’s useful to note his remarks on the weaponization of justice in this country."

Here’s a sample:

Administrations and their efforts to stock the justice department with supporters come and go. But in the last decade the Left has viewed the Department of Justice as a political extension of the party -- whose unchecked power must properly be directed to hurt enemies and help friends. [snip]

Never in U.S. history have the Department of Justice and sympathetic state and local prosecutors indicted a leading opposition candidate and likely nominee of one of the two major parties, and at the beginning of a presidential campaign. Donald Trump is currently charged with nearly 100 felonies by at least two prosecutors. He likely eventually will be hit with more than- 500 indictments, from four prosecutors, every one of the latter with a long record of either leftwing associations or Democratic service.

The mass murderer Charles Manson faced less legal exposure. . .

. . ."In this case, the appointment of David Weiss as special counsel was met with disbelief. Professor Jonathan Turley details why this was such an outrageous move by Attorney General Garland:  

This is, after all, the same Weiss who headed an investigation that was trashed by whistleblowers, who alleged that his investigation had been fixed from the outset.

It is the same Weiss who ran an investigation in which agents were allegedly prevented from asking about Joe Biden, obstructed in their efforts to pursue questions and compromised by tip offs to the Biden team on planned searches.

It was also the same Weiss who reportedly allowed the statute of limitations to run out on Hunter’s major tax offenses, even though he had the option to extend it.

It was the same Weiss who did not indict on major tax felonies and cut a plea deal that brushed aside a felony gun charge.

It was the same Weiss who inked a widely panned “sweetheart” deal that caused a federal judge to balk and trash a sweeping immunity grant -- language that even the prosecutor admitted he had never previously seen in a plea deal.[snip] . . .

Florida Republican files articles of impeachment against Biden

Democrats were quick to come to Joe Biden’s defense, insisting that there is no evidence that Joe Biden accepted any payments.

  HotAir   "Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) filed articles of impeachment against Joe Biden on Friday. On the same day, he brought forward legislation requiring the head of the Secret Service to file reports about illegal use of controlled substances in the White House." . . .


. . .“It’s long past time to impeach Joe Biden,” Steube said in a statement. “He has undermined the integrity of his office, brought disrepute on the Presidency, betrayed his trust as President, and acted in a manner subversive of the rule of law and justice at the expense of America’s citizens.”

“The evidence continues to mount by the day – the Biden Crime Family has personally profited off Joe’s government positions through bribery, threats, and fraud. Joe Biden must not be allowed to continue to sit in the White House, selling out our country,” Steube said." . . .


Vivek Ramaswamy Says He's Considering Giving a Pardon to Hunter Biden, Other Biden Family Members – RedState    . . ."I’d caution Ramaswamy that going down that road would not unite the country and allow it to move forward, as he suggests. Instead, it would be seen as yet another in a long list of examples of Democrats not having to face justice for crimes Republicans are put in prison for. Hunter Biden deserves to go to prison. Other members of his family might deserve that fate as well, depending on where the evidence takes things. To give the Biden family a free pass would be catastrophic for trust in the government and the legal system.

"So while I understand Ramaswamy is a very positive-thinking guy, if he’s going to evaluate anything, it should be re-evaluating this idea because it’s a bad one."

35-Time Racing Champion Quits Over Biological Males Dominating Her Sport

 35-Time Racing Champion Quits Over Biological Males Dominating Her Sport (analyzingamerica.org)


"Legendary 35-time professional cycling champion Hannah Arensman is walking away from her sport at the young age of 25 due to the rise of transgender women dominating the sport. In some races, transgender women are winning by a whooping five minutes.

“I was born into a family of athletes,” Arensman said in a statement. “Encouraged by my parents and siblings, I competed in sports from a young age, and I followed in my sister’s footsteps, climbing the ranks to become an elite cyclocross racer. Over the past few years, I have had to race directly with male cyclists in women’s events.”

“As this has become more of a reality, it has become increasingly discouraging to train as hard as I do only to have to lose to a man with the unfair advantage of an androgenized body that intrinsically gives him an obvious advantage over me, no matter how hard I train,” she continued. “I have decided to end my cycling career.” (Trending: Trans Women Wins Major Sports Event)" . . .

Former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown had to threaten Biden, who was groping Brown’s wife

 Biden is what Biden is, of course. The really disgusting thing is that the Democrat establishment, whether political officials, Deep Staters, consultants, or media outlets, have been protecting this loathsome excuse for a human being for so long. 

Andrea Widburg - American Thinker   Currently, Joe Biden’s creepy, handsy, sniffing behavior is limited to the little children who get too close to him. And this conduct is newsworthy because it’s disgusting, especially when the head of the American state engages in it. However, it’s worth remembering that Biden has been credibly accused of sexual assault and has a decades-long reputation for grabbing grown women. Now, former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown has reminded us that he once had to threaten to “kick the s***” out of Biden when the latter groped Brown’s wife.

The MeToo movement was an effort to destroy Trump. It failed and, indeed, backfired. It turned out that a whole lot of leftist men, the kind who endlessly touted their support for women’s rights and modern feminism, used that loud support as a cover for dirty deeds.

Joe Biden ought to have been swept up in and destroyed by the MeToo movement. After all, for decades, his very public targets have been women and children.

However, as Obama’s one-time vice president, he was untouchable when the MeToo movement appeared. By 2020, when Tara Reade’s made her highly credible claims about him sexually assaulting her (claims that had contemporaneous support from a phone call her mother made to Larry King), she was attacked, and an effort was made to destroy her. MeToo’s mantra of “believe all women” did not extend to a challenge to the Democrat presidential candidate." . . .

Saturday, August 12, 2023

Defending the Texas Border Means Defying Joe Biden

The safety and sovereignty of Texas citizens should not be resigned to waiting for a complicated judicial process or a change in presidential administrations.

American Greatness  "As the State of Texas attempts to secure its border and stop the invasion of illegal aliens that are flooding our state, the majority of the pushback isn’t coming from the narcoterrorist cartels who have complete operational control of the border region—it’s coming from Joe Biden.
"Since Gov. Greg Abbott tapped former Border Patrol agent Mike Banks to lead Operation Lone Star, Texas Department of Public Safety officers, members of the Texas National Guard, and other members of the state’s response team have been working to secure the Texas Border and prevent illegal entry only to see their work undermined by U.S. Border Patrol officers who admit illegal aliens into Texas on Joe Biden’s orders.
"Over the past several months, Texas Border enforcement has become a cat-and-mouse game between Texas and the federal government.
"It’s all part of what the Center for Immigration Studies’ Todd Bensman calls a “Cold Border War.”
" 'It’s become a war: Texas actually enforcing the law, and the Biden administration fighting it at every step,” wrote Bensman in the New York Post.
"To his credit, Abbott should be commended for doing more than any other governor, but he’s also had to deal with a far more serious crisis than any other governor.
"Since Joe Biden took office and reversed much of the Trump administration’s actions to deter illegal crossings, Title 42, Remain in Mexico, etc., the result has been what can only be described as an invasion." . . .

 


Biden’s Secretary of State chastises Russian government for locking up opposition leader

 Eric Utter - American Thinker

Blinken’s missive is akin to Hitler chastising the U.S. for mistreating Jews. It’s as if a Klansman reminded Clarence Thomas to treat black folks with the fairness and dignity they deserve. It would be like Teddy Kennedy cautioning Ronald Reagan to “drive sober.” 

"American Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently issued a tweet condemning Russia’s prosecution of opposition leader Aleksey Navalny. On August 4th, a Russian court convicted Navalny on charges of “extremism” and sentenced him to 19 years in prison. This was one day after former (and possibly future) President Donald Trump was arraigned in federal court on transparently bogus charges related to his questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election and his role in the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021.

"Incredibly, Blinken tweeted:

The United States strongly condemns Russia’s conviction of opposition leader Aleksey Navalny on politically motivated charges. The Kremlin cannot silence the truth. Navalny should be released.

"He must have giggled to himself after posting this. He should have added “#hypocrisy #chutzpah.”

"The Biden administration in its entirety, including the DOJ, CIA, FBI, and various other now rogue and weaponized federal agencies, has been diligently trying to convict and imprison Trump since the day Biden took office." . . .

Special counsel in Biden investigation is a sweet pick for Hunter

"We can't be surprised, but we should all be ashamed of what our Department of Justice, under Joe Biden, has become. Calling this banana republic justice is an insult to banana republics."


  American Thinker  "In a move that should come as a surprise to no one, Merrick Garland has appointed, as special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden, the one man who can most be counted on to continue covering up for the Biden family crimes. That man is David Weiss. 

"This is the self-same David Weiss who allowed the statute of limitations to lapse on Hunter Biden's most serious crimes, while offering him a plea deal so broad, so lenient, and for crimes so minor that the prosecutor Weiss sent to court had to admit to an astonished judge that there was no legal precedent for it. To her credit, the judge rejected that sweetheart plea deal out of hand.
"That would be the David Weiss whose office IRS investigators-turned-whistleblowers testified prevented them from even interviewing Hunter or executing search warrants to collect evidence of his crimes — and the same David Weiss who blocked those IRS investigators from using the mountains of evidence contained on Hunter's infamous laptop from hell. 
"Yes, David Weiss, who, five years after the beginning of this sham investigation, has not indicted Hunter Biden for anything — while the statute of limitations on his serial and thoroughly documented felonies continue to slip away. Those crimes would have earned any Republican a pre-dawn arrest by a heavily armed SWAT team with news media in tow. 
"I say that it should surprise no one, because at this point, there is no act so blatant, so brazen, or so lawless that Joe Biden's DOJ, led by Merrick Garland, will not stoop to it. This is the same weaponized DOJ that is targeting Biden's main political opponent for re-election in 2024.

"Besides having proven himself as nothing more than a protector of the Bidens, David Weiss isn't even legally eligible for this appointment — at least according to a plain reading of the special counsel statute, which states that "the Special Counsel shall be selected from outside the United States Government." 

"All this is to conclude that David Weiss has proven that his only intention is to immunize Hunter Biden with the lowest possible charges and shield any evidence from implicating Joe BIden." . . .

Maui had a firebug on the loose and a fancy warning system that didn't work: Hawaii governor blames global warming -

 

Monica Showalter; American Thinker   "Hawaii had the world's fanciest natural disaster warning system on the planet. It also had an ongoing firebug problem, and recent academic study warning that the place was very vulnerable to fire catastrophes.

"Somehow, none of that figured in the government's fire plan. The firebug is still out there. The conditions created for big fires, such as the proliferation of non-native grasses, remain on Maui. And the fancy emergency warning system somehow didn't work.

"Never mind any of that: Its governor says the problem is global warming.

“We've never experienced a wildfire that affected a city like this before,” Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D) told reporters Thursday, noting that global warming is exacerbating extreme weather around the world and will have to be considered as communities rebuild. “Climate change is here."

"Which seems a little distant from his immediate duties as governor.

"Here's the opening scenario for the catastrophe on Maui that took out Hawaii's lovely heritage town of Lahaina, destroyed 1,000 buildings, and killed scores of people, from the Associated Press:

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Hawaii emergency management records show no indication that warning sirens sounded before people ran for their lives from wildfires on Maui that killed at least 55 people and wiped out a historic town. Instead, officials sent alerts to mobile phones, televisions and radio stations — but widespread power and cellular outages may have limited their reach.

Hawaii boasts what the state describes as the largest integrated outdoor all-hazard public safety warning system in the world, with about 400 sirens positioned across the island chain to alert people to various natural disasters and other threats.

But many survivors said in interviews Thursday that they didn’t hear any sirens or receive a warning that gave them enough time to prepare and only realized they were in danger when they saw flames or heard explosions nearby.

"No warning? That's a scandal. And it led to scenes like this:"  (Intense Language)

Much more here.

 

Faith Healer Profiled By Oprah, CNN’s Sanjay Gupta Gets 99 Years For Abusing Women, Children

When we reject the Holy Scriptures as our foundation, we do not believe nothing; we believe everything. TD

 Faith Healer Profiled By Oprah, CNN's Sanjay Gupta Gets 99 Years for Abusing Women, Children - Valiant News   A Brazilian faith healer once celebrated by the Oprah Winfrey, Anderson Cooper, and Sanjay Gupta has been sentenced to another 99 years behind bars for sex crimes he committed against women and girls, some as young as 14.

"João Teixeira de Faria, known to English-speaking audiences as John of God, received another 99 years in prison for sex crimes, and is now sentenced to more than 300 years in total. Brazilian news outlet Globo reported that de Faria’s latest crimes involved acts committed between 2010 and 2018 against 8 victims.

"The faith healer was also ordered to pay R$100,000 to his victims. It’s unclear just how many victims there are, however, as since 12 women initially put forward accusations in 2018, more than 200 complaints were rapidly received from across Brazil, and two were received from foreign countries.

"As the media focused on the story, more than 600 accusations ultimately surfaced against de Faria from alleged victims that were as young as 14 years old. The rapes occurred from 1986 to 2017.

"Before the accusations went public, John of God was celebrated on American television for his purported ability to do surgeries with psychoactive abilities.

"Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a medical expert who became well known for appearances on CNN to discuss the Covid-19 epidemic, and who was once threatened with litigation by podcaster Joe Rogan over his claims about Rogan’s use of unorthodox Covid-19 treatments, profiled John of God in 2010.

" 'A lot of people claim that these types of things that John of God are doing is just quackery, just sleight of hand,” Gupta pressed a guest, who admitted that “some is sleight of hand” but “some cannot be explained by sleight of hand and insisted, “I have come to believe, somewhat reluctantly” that John of God’s powers are real.

"“I find it intriguing,” said Gupta, allowing his guest to conjecture about the future of energy healing, before warning about John of God potentially offering false hope." . . .

Then for others, there is Benny Hinn and his magic coat:

Portland ‘justice’

Related: Grand Opening, Grand Closing. Portland’s New (White) Police Chief is OUT After Riots

Chaos in antifastan as record number of Portland Police set to retire


"So far this month, 15 Portland police officers have put in their official paperwork to retire at the end of the month. That sounds like a trifle, but there have been multiple appointments made to finalize the paperwork for more retiring cops that haven’t been counted in that number. The Bureau is on-trend to lose a “record number” of officers – maybe as many as 42 by the end of the month, and 100 by the end of the year, according to multiple knowledgeable officers who spoke to PJ Media.

"An executive with the Portland Fire & Police Disability & Retirement department tells me that “this is probably the biggest [number of retirements] we’ve ever had.”

 West Coast, Messed Coast™: Disney Pulls a Dylan Mulvaney Move – PJ Media

. . ."The verdict in the civil case brought by journalist Andy Ngo against members of Antifa shows the world how out of whack the system of “justice” is in Antifastan, er, Portland. Despite video showing that the perpetrators chased, terrorized, and assaulted Ngo, a Portland jury was unpersuaded.

"As I wrote this week at PJ Media, jurors expressed fear for their safety during the trial. A gag order was put on the proceedings, and the jurors’ names were kept secret. And then this happened in court:

On Tuesday, a Portland jury decided that two key alleged Antifa conspirators whose cases went to trial were not civilly liable for Ngo’s injuries, both physical and otherwise. The trial was marred by intimidation tactics — not just from the attackers but from their attorney who declared to the unidentified jury members, “I am Antifa” and “I will remember each one of your faces.” We’re talking Godfather stuff here.

"Ngo’s attorneys, among them Harmeet Dhillon and James Buchal, are pondering the next legal steps in the case. But I’m thinking veiled threats by a defense attorney in court and efforts by Antifa to doxx the jurors might persuade an appeals court that this isn’t what justice is supposed to look like." . . .

Environmentalists’ Broken Toys –

  Issues & Insights

  • Wind farms have to be built in open spaces where power isn’t needed. Moving the electricity to where it’s eventually used destroys the landscape in between.


"We’ve recently written quite a bit about electric vehicles’ many flaws – the reasons to hate them, their evil nature, the entire EV con. But they’re not the only green plaything that’s being exposed for the debacle they are. Windmills are just as troubled.

“ 'All over the world, rural people are reacting with fury at the encroachment of large wind and solar projects on their homes and neighborhoods,” writes energy author Robert Bryce.

"Last month, “thousands of Druze residents in the Golan Heights,” says Bryce, “rioted to stop the installation of a large wind project on their traditional lands.” Before that, a wind project in Colombia was “canceled after it met fierce opposition from the indigenous Wayuu communities.”

"Bryce noted last week that over the last 10 days in the U.S., “local governments in Illinois, Ohio, and Iowa have rejected or restricted wind and solar projects.” According to his database, that makes 574 rejections or restrictions of ​​solar and wind projects in less than a decade. Most of them, 407, have been wind projects.

"Bryce predicted the growth of resistance four years ago when he wrote in The Hill that protests in Hawaii then were “a harbinger of more clashes to come if governments attempt to install the colossal quantities of wind turbines and solar panels that would be needed to fuel the global economy.”

"There are a number of problems with wind farms:" . . .  Full article here.